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6:30 PM ET, June 29, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Mark John / Reuters:
Telecom firms back standard phone charger in Europe  —  Top mobile telephone suppliers have agreed to back an EU-wide harmonization of phone chargers, the European Commission said on Monday, hailing the pact as good news for consumers and the environment.  —  The agreement by Nokia …
Connie Guglielmo / Bloomberg:
Steve Jobs Returns to Work as Apple CEO After Medical Leave  —  Steve Jobs is back at work at Apple Inc., returning to his job as chief executive officer as planned after taking medical leave in January.  —  “Steve is back to work,” Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman, said today.
Justin Scheck / Wall Street Journal:
Dell Developing Pocket-Sized Device  —  Engineers at Dell Inc. have been developing a pocket-sized device for tapping into the Internet, people familiar with the company's plans said.  —  The gadget uses Google Inc.'s Android software, these people said.  Two people who said they saw early …
Malcolm Gladwell / New Yorker:
PRICED TO SELL  —  At a hearing on Capitol Hill in May, James Moroney, the publisher of the Dallas Morning News, told Congress about negotiations he'd just had with the online retailer Amazon.  The idea was to license his newspaper's content to the Kindle, Amazon's new electronic reader.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Facebook Selects New CFO: Former Genentech Exec Ebersman  —  Facebook picked a new CFO quietly, after its cloddish public parting with longtime top financial exec Gideon Yu earlier this year.  —  Facebook said in late March it was looking for a CFO with “public company experience,” …
Richard Pérez-Peña / New York Times:
Keeping News of Kidnapping Off Wikipedia  —  For seven months, The New York Times managed to keep out of the news the fact that one of its reporters, David Rohde, had been kidnapped by the Taliban.  —  But that was pretty straightforward compared with keeping it off Wikipedia.
Thomas Claburn / InformationWeek:
China Bans Gold Farming  —  Trading virtual goods for real money has been banned in China, putting hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity at risk.  —  In addition to its ongoing crackdown on Internet porn, the Chinese government has declared that virtual currency cannot be traded for real goods or services.
The Official Google Blog:
Extending Google services in Africa  —  At Google we seek to serve a broad base of people — not only those who can afford to access the Internet from the convenience of their workplace or with a computer at home.  It's important to reach users wherever they are, with the information they need …
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Google: We're Not Really That Big But If We Are, We Aren't Bad  —  The NY Times offers a broad article about Google's efforts to define, explain and clarify its place in the market in the face of increasing anti-trust scrutiny (Google Makes a Case That It Isn't So Big).
RELATED:
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Google move paves way for Firefox on Android  —  Google's move to let software run natively on Android devices opens the door for a version of Firefox that can run on the operating system.  —  At present, Android applications are written in Java and run on Google's Dalvik Java virtual machine.
Scott Moritz / TheStreet.com:
Tech Rumor of the Day: Nvidia  —  Nvidia (NVDA Quote) is once again on the verge of cracking a mobile device market: smartphones.  —  Mike Rayfield, the general manager of Nvidia's mobile unit says he expects the company's Tegra chip to debut in a phone from one of the top five cell-phone makers …
Scott M. Fulton, III / BetaNews:
Cable DVRs are legal: Supreme Court denies appeal of Cablevision decision  —  The last possible effort by movie studios such as 20th Century Fox and cable television producers, including CNN and Cartoon Network, to forestall cable service providers such as Cablevision from providing their customers …
Daniel Ionescu / PC World:
The Pirate Bay to Take On YouTube, Hulu with The Video Bay  —  Watch out Hollywood, another threat to your profits appears to be setting sail and headed in your direction.  A site called The Video Bay aims to make pirated TV shows and Hollywood movies available in hi-def quality for streaming through …
Charles Arthur / Guardian:
Average Twitter user has 126 followers, and only 20% of users go via website  —  Got 127 followers on Twitter?  Congratulations - you're above average!  And do you want to guess when its busiest time was?  (Hint: not the Iran election...)  —  Here are some did-you-knows to drop about Twitter:
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Here's How iPhone App Store Ratings Work.  Hint: They Don't.  —  We've been a bit baffled by the system Apple has in place when it comes to ratings for applications in the App Store.  Is it allowing apps with nudity?  Not allowing them?  Allowing them with a 17+ rating?
Olivia Ma / Google News Blog:
A Call to News Publishers: How to Share Your Video  —  We're always looking for ways to enhance the way people consume the news, and we have some improvements planned over the next few months.  To get things started, Google News and YouTube are teaming up to help news publishers build a bigger audience for their video content.
Kevin C. Tofel / jkOnTheRun:
Palm Pre Build Quality Issues Continue to Slide Out  —  So how's the build quality on your Palm Pre?  My particular unit is solid, but I'm reading more and more accounts of people complaining about their Pre handsets.  Some folks have experienced cracked screens.  Others see issues with the sliding hinge mechanism.
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Financial Times:
Vodafone eyes T-Mobile UK bid  —  By Andrew Parker and Neil Hume in London and Gerrit Wiesmann in Frankfurt  —  Vodafone is considering an offer to buy T-Mobile UK in an audacious move that would have huge repercussions for the British mobile phone market.
Connie Schultz / Plain Dealer:
Tighter copyright law could save newspapers: Connie Schultz  —  A recent series of investigative stories in our newspaper illustrated the best that journalism has to offer, which is why so many in our industry responded with mixed emotions.  —  My colleague Mark Puente unearthed a festering scandal …
Mark Sullivan / PC World:
A Day in the Life of 3G  —  During March and April, we spent a day testing the major 3G services in 13 cities across the United States.  Verizon's service showed a combination of speed and reliability, Sprint's results lent credence to its ‘most dependable’ claim, and AT&T's network showed fast upload speeds in most cities.
Paul Miller / Engadget:
Comcast launches High-Speed 2go WiMax service tomorrow in Portland, other cities to follow by end of year  —  Put down that bowl of homemade granola and take heed, citizens of Portland: you're about to get a first crack at Comcast's High-Speed 2go service, and we don't want any of your excuses about …
Nielsen Wire:
Apple Tops List of Hardware Sites, Rings Up Buzz in June  —  Anticipatory buzz around the release of the latest model of the iPhone most likely helped Apple secure the top traffic spot among hardware manufacturers in May 2009.  The site drew 55.7 million unique viewers …
Discussion: Gearlog and The Microsoft Blog
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Next Hot Tech IPO: LogMeIn  —  Updated: The almost moribund market for technology initial public offerings might make a comeback if Woburn, Mass.-based software maker LogMeIn has a successful debut on the public market.  The company is looking to raise $107.2 million, and the deal will be priced this coming Tuesday.
Cecilia Kang / Post I.T.:
Genachowski Begins at FCC; Announces Senior Staff  —  Julius Genachowski was sworn in today as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, beginning a tenure that is expected to bring more attention to new mobile and Internet technologies.  —  Genachowski also announced his key staff …
Mike Sachoff / WebProNews:
Online TV Brings In Ad Revenue  —  The online TV services of the four major U.S. networks, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, along with Hulu, accounted for a combined 53 percent of the ad-supported online TV market that generated $448 million in revenues in 2008, according to a new report by Screen Digest.
Discussion: paidContent
 
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 More Items: 
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Windows 7 pre-orders sell-out in Japan
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:
Facebook Nabs New Payments Director from Google
Discussion: paidContent and VentureBeat, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Germans Get Cheaper Cell Phone Service In Exchange for Ads
Discussion: alcatel-lucent.com and ITworld.com
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
One year after Bill Gates' ‘retirement’: What's different?
Chris Buckley / Reuters:
China filter software faces tough sell in digital bazaar
Discussion: ZDNet Government and p2pnet
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Real-time systems hurting long-term knowledge?
Discussion: louisgray.com
 Earlier Items: 
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Bring Twitter Talk To Your Site With Tweetboard
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Microsoft: Zeroing In On $30?
Discussion: Between the Lines
Telegraph:
Thieves ‘using Google Earth to steal koi carp’
Josh Lowensohn / CNET News:
Ch-ch-ch-changes: A visual history of Firefox
Discussion: eWeek and The Register
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
The Top 100 Networked Venture Capitalists
Discussion: VentureBeat, Thanks:atul
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Authentic Brands licenses Sports Illustrated's publishing rights to The Players' Tribune owner Minute Media for 10 years, with plans to keep the print edition

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Ofcom rules that five GB News programs presented by Conservative politicians have broken its due impartiality rules and puts the channel “on notice”

Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTuber MrBeast announces a deal with Prime Video for Beast Games, a reality-competition show with 1,000 contestants, promising the winner a $5M cash prize

 
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